MEG evolution and trends

Nikolay Koshev, assistant professor at CDISE Skoltech, Ph.D. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is the most powerful non-invasive neuroimaging technique providing both high temporal and high spatial resolution. Conventional MEG systems use low-Tc SQUID sensors, high prices of which (both in terms of CAPEX and OPEX) were making this brilliant technique unpopular and low spread for almost half a century. Recent technological advances in the fields of High-Tc SQUIDs, atomic, and flux-gate magnetometry allow, however, to assume a much brighter future to the MEG technique. This talk is devoted firstly to a short review of current trends of development of the MEG, and secondly, to a new kind of MEG feasible sensor recently developed by the Russian Quantum Center. The presented sensor is a solid-state magnetometer of a flux-gate type. The device is compact, works at room temperature, and, theoretically, allows to overcome some limits of atomic- and SQUID-based MEG technology.